In peer-to-peer communications over multiple fabrics it is inefficient to have a separate dedicated switch for each traffic type (e.g., storage traffic, transport/network traffic, cluster traffic, etc.). Furthermore, if multiple fabrics are present between two peers, then both peers must be aware of all the different fabrics between the two peers as well as know the various fabric protocols. Adaptations to each peer to accommodate additional protocols or additional communication partners can be particularly expensive when the peers are great distances apart.
A computer (e.g., a server) can be attached to many fabrics to access different services or data. These computers can be grouped (e.g., server blades) to reduce foot print, cooling requirements, management concerns, etc. As many of the computers of the group need to access the same resource or service, it is desired to be more efficient and to allow further shrinking of the server input/output (I/O) subsystem if access to the remote service/resource is also grouped.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art through comparison of such systems with the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.